Watch out Hallmark here come Emily

Last night I asked Emily to make a birthday card for her friend Caleb as we were going over to his house for cake and ice cream. Emily thought about it and then asked for the following to be put on the front of the card:

"Emily Palmer is going to Caleb's birthday party."

That was it. Nothing else. Unfortunately we ran out of time to actually make the card. :) But there you go, her presence at your party is all that needs to be said. :)

The World from a 4 year old's View

Yesterday was the primary presentation during sacrament meeting. Emily has been practicing her line and the songs for a few weeks. She was so excited. Especially when she found out that Grandma and Grandpa Palmer were going to be there to watch her. We got to church a little late but we were able to get into our places. Emily was the first child to get up to say their line. She did exactly as she had practiced. She walked up, pulled the mike down to her level and said, "Feast upon the words of Christ." Then she sat down and gave me a thumbs up and a big smile. (I was sitting behind her with some of the other kids her age. The presentation went very well and I was really impressed with all that participated. Landon even came up when it was time for all the older boys to sing their song (he was supposed to because he teaches that age group but he kept threatening not to come up.) The kids sat very well through it and I think it was a great success. Because they had all done very well the primary president gave every child a can of pop and a bag of microwave popcorn to have at home. That way there was no mess at church. Emily proudly came and showed us the can of "Diet" pop she had picked up and told us she was going to give it to Collin. I was surprised she had picked it up because we don't drink diet soda at my house and I won't bore you with the reason why. :) She had passed up Orange soda which is her favourite. At home I asked her why she had picked it. This was the conversation:

Me: Emily why did you pick a diet soda?
Emily: Because diet soda makes you skinny.
Me: (Very puzzled as I have definitely never said that.) Who told you that?
Emily: The boys. (She couldn't make up her mind which pop and so the boys in her class told her that.)
Me: Emily you don't need to worry about being skinny.
Emily: (Giving me a puzzled look which almost made me think she thought I was stupid.) But mom, I have skin. See skinny! (And then she pinched her arm to show me.)

I busted out laughing. So there you go, she must have been worried that Collin didn't have enough "skinny" so she got a diet soda for him. :) I love kids!

Last week (I think Wednesday or Thursday) I was putting Collin to bed and he was telling me about all the super heroes. He knows them all. And their respective villains. There was Batman, Robin, Penguin, Joker, Catwoman, and the other batman villains. Then there was Captain America, the Hulk (who gets "MAD!" and then gets strong according to Collin) Iron Man, Rodi, Thor, Cyclops, Aquaman, the green goblin and the list goes on and on. Eventually he winds the list down and says, "But mom, Spiderman is my hero. He captures bad guys. And he is my HERO." It was really cute. I love watching him act out the different super heros and here about their adventures and their origin stories. I can't believe how much knowledge about super heroes he has in his little two year old head. It is at times like that I realize just how much I love my little super hero. And then he goes back to be a two year old. Those good memories are helping me get through. :)

New Family Pictures

I took a day off a few weeks ago so that I could take Emily on her first field trip. As I had the day off we decided to run out with Rita and take some family photos. They turned out really good especially since we had them all done in about 15 minutes. :) Here are some that I have been fooling around with today. My math students had some free time today and they wanted to see my kids. They helped me pick out the font for the kids pictures. I think they turned out fabulous! Thanks Rita! Rita promised to help me with the family photo so that we can hopefully switch Collin's face with one of the pictures he was really smiling in. What do you think?

Wahoo, I'm 32!

I just had the best birthday weekend ever! (pictures to come if I ever download them from my camera.)

Friday -
My sister Rita, Landon, and my friend Lorilee conspired to throw me a surprise birthday party and they totally succeeded. Rita told me that she would take my kids Friday night so Landon and I could go out for dinner. We went out to Ruby Tuesday (which was pretty good food) and I was so hungry I ate way more than I should. I felt extremely full. Landon told the waitress it was my birthday so she gave me a free scoop of ice cream. We drove home and Landon let me be the first one to walk through the door. As soon as I started to walk in this really loud roar of "Surprise!" hit me as my nephew Tyson almost tackled me. I was in a little shock. My friend Alicia said I went into a defensive pose and was worried I may hit someone. It was extremely overwhelming. I got over it quickly and I became overwhelmed with the work Rita had put in to everything. (I should have known something was up since Landon had cleaned the house spotless during the day. I assumed it was because it was my birthday.) She had made decorations and TWO cakes. The Moores, Hymas', Johnson's, Peck's, Loveland's and Marjanna Hulet all came. (13 adults, 13 kids.) On Sunday I had two other families tell me that they had not been able to make it plus our friends the Stein's couldn't make it and came the next night. It was a really full house. Thanks to Landon for allowing it! It was nice to sit around and visit as all the kids went downstairs to play. A mystery did unfold as the toy shelving came crashing down ontop of Caleb who was luckily unhurt because of the cushiness of the crash bag. None of the kids came explain how it became unachored from the wall... Luckily no one was hurt and one of these days I will fix it. :)

Saturday -
The kids let us sleep in and then they climbed into bed with us. So nice! We just snuggled and visited for a little while. My friend Alicia lent me her lawn mower as ours is broken so that we could mow. (Alicia and I arranged this when I was at my dinner the night before. She texted and asked what I was up to because her husband was at work and she was bored. She was actually waiting in my living room for me to get home. Silly girl!) I was able to winterize our yard because Rita had cleaned my kitchen before leaving Friday night. I swapped out everyone's summer clothes for the winter. Lorilee, Rita, Crystal and I all went out for lunch at Butterburr's. Delicious food! Landon babysat Caleb Lorilee's little boy so that we only had to take her son Emmett. Thanks Landon! We sat around and chatted for over an hour. So nice! I picked up a cake from Costco on our way home. Rita and I split it as we were both having separate get together's at our house that night. In the mail I got a birthday card from Rita's inlaws, Clarence and LaRie. They wrote me really nice notes and gave me a $2 which is what they give their grandchildren on their birthday. It made my day. I made the birthday cake for Rita and my joint party Sunday night. Rita had requested a "candy basket" cake. Easiest cake I have ever made but SUGAR OVERLOAD! I had the Johnson's and the Stein's over that night. I had invited a couple other families but they had been unable to come. My birthday present from Landon was that I was allowed to invite over a few families to get together for cake and games and he would be social. :) He was a sweetheart and did it two nights in a row! It was lots of fun.

Sunday -
The kids let us sleep in again and I read a few more chapters in the book I was reading. I got the kids ready and ran out to drop off some flowers and a card for a friend who is going through some rough stuff right now. Emily loved it because she ran up to the door, laid everything on the door mat, knocked on the door and ran away before the door opened. She thought that was the coolest game. :) Collin was a pill most of the day as he was tired from two full days. Sacrament meeting was really good. I had to take Collin out before it was over because he was trying to run around. Out in the hallway I saw Rita and a bunch of her friends. They all wished me a Happy Birthday and I got lots of hugs. Rita looked gorgeous in her new birthday dress. A few friends in my ward gave me cards which was really thoughtful of them. Lots of birthday wishes as well. Then the next two hours of primary was practicing for the primary presentation. That was actually a lot of fun. The best birthday present was that Lorilee's son Emmett came to me without crying even though I walked away from his mom and dad. :) I fed him my cake on Friday trying to bribe him that he loves me. :) I'm going to keep working at it until Lorilee and Brad will be able to leave him with me so that they can have a date night. Emily did really well with her part and sang well. I get to sit with her class and they are just so adorable. I am really excited for next Sunday. We went home from church to a beautiful roast in the crockpot. YUM! I did up some potatoes in the oven and some steamed carrots. Perfect! My dad called me at the end of dinner to give his birthday wishes. They put it off till after church so that I could sleep in. :) So thoughtful! It was great to chat with my dad and I loved chatting with my mom afterwards. I have the best parents. My mom is sending Rita and I for a little pampering for our present. Nic is in charge of setting it up so I don't know all the details yet. We headed over to Rita's for a joint family birthday party for Abigail, Rita and I. I can't believe she is 1 already. Nic's siblings (who live in the area) and his parents all came as well. Jamie (Rita's sister in law) was really sweet and gave me some lotion and shower gel from Bath and Body Works. I love the scent! We visited for a few hours and then went home and put our children to bed. I then finished my day finishing my book. (With few interruptions: a phone call from Naomi and a text from Sheryl.) Perfect Day!

Monday -
I finally got a chance to check my email and there were over 50 birthday wishes on my facebook page. So much love. Made my day. Right before lunch a bunch of 8th graders came into my room with a big poster that said, "Happy Birthday Mrs. Palmer." They then sang me Happy Birthday. It was my friend Marilana's social studies class. They asked how old I was and I told them. They were sweet and acted surprised that I was 32. A few of my students said they would have guessed 25. (Mid terms come out in two days, I think they were looking for some extra credit. :) )

Thank-you to all those who made my birthday such a wonderful day!

Halloween

On October 3rd I came home from work to Emily waiting for me in the living room. She informed me that Aunt Rita had a ghost up in her house for Halloween. And "Where are our ghosts?" Emily and I raided the decoration boxes and I was surprised to find I actually have some Halloween decorations. I always forget to decorate until a few days before. Emily helped me set up everything in the living room. She decided that the extra witch needed to be hung in her bedroom. She also told me that I needed to paint some ghosts with feet on our windows. That is on my to do list..... :) Emily also decided that she "needed" to have a pink unicorn costume. It cost $40 so mom squashed that idea. I thought about making costumes but I decided that would stress me out too much. I went online to Target.com to see what they had. I found a SuperGirl costume for $12. I bought it a few sizes too big so it would last awhile. Emily has been asking for a pink Superman costume for a few months. We received the box in the mail on Thursday. She put on the costume and assumed her super powers of speed and strength. Collin was lifted into the air. I had to time her running around the house. Collin had to put on his spiderman pj shirt, lego batman/robin pj pants, batmobile slippers and superman hat so he could have super powers. Then we took Cassie her fairy princess costume with both my kids dressed up. Collin is Spiderman this year for Halloween. I am so excited!

Emily's Dance Class

Emily started Dance class the week after she started preschool. She was so excited to have Miss Katelyn back as her teacher. She loves taking tap again. Here are some pictures Rita took on their first day of dance class. I love the picture of Collin and Maggie as well. They have a love/hate relationship. :) I love the ever present Superheros in Collin's hands as well.

Emily's First Day of Preschool

I am so lucky to have Rita as my sister. I had to work Emily's first day of school but my sister was kind enough to document it for me. :) Emily was so excited to go. She came home a little disappointed that it was a "house school" but she said that she can wait to go to a "real school" next year. That is what happens when she gets to go to school with mom a few times and expects her preschool to look like mom's school. :) She loves Mrs Tammy and thinks its funny that she sees her at church each Sunday. She is learning so much! She now knows three letters and proudly finds every A, B, and O in signs and books. Emily wanted a purple back pack but I convinced her to pick out material from my stash of fabric that had purple flowers and we made up a pattern together for her school bag. It turned out really cute but she broke one of the straps that first day. Instead she uses the cute red corduroy bag my Aunt Margaret made her a year ago that has her name embroidered on it. And this bag has become her dance bag. :) She loves having Cassie in her class. Tammy says that they are really good about including everyone in their class in their play. Cassie makes up songs and she and Emily sing them. She said that they are really cute but work hard. A good start to a love of learning!

Memory with Collin

(September 29, 2011)

Tonight I sat on my bed with Collin "talking on our phones." He talked into the alarm clock remote and I talked into my phone. he would tell me when to dial and when to put my phone to my ear ("get your phone up!") . This is how the conversations would go:

Collin - "Hey mom what you doin the next day?"

Me - "Going to work." "Taking my kids out" "Going to bed."

Collin - "Ugh!" And then repeat what I said disgustedly. Then he would tell me I was taking my kids to the park.

Me - "Okay"

Collin - "Its time for a dancing party. Talk to you next time."

I hope I can never forget this experience. Excuse me as I go and put him to bed since it is 9:45 pm.

Fickleness of Teenagers

(Since Landon isn't finished his homework yet I thought I'd squeeze in a post)

Last Friday I woke late for work. I had just enough time to pull my hair back, throw some clothes on and head to my carpool. Arrived to school to be reminded that it was picture day and I had to have my picture taken for yearbook and staff id. Should have been my first clue to what kind of day it was going to be. The picture turned out okay but I didn't really care. My first hour went well. Second hour we split up the class and I was working with a group of 8 students. One girl kept rolling her eyes and sighing anytime I would correct someone's pronounciation or ask comprehension questions. After 20 minutes I told her that it was rude and she needed to stop. She did it again! So I told her to pick up her books and move to another part of the room and do the assignment because I didn't want to be disrespected any longer. She stopped and we finished the lesson. This girl's brother is in my 3rd hour. He was a PILL along with a few other students. My fourth hour would not stop talking and were really rude. I was ready to go insane. After lunch I had my fifth hour class which was the worst behaved class of the day. I was so glad it was my prep. I have been trying to get my IEP program working and spent half an hour trying to dowload the shortcut from the website. Wasn't working so I headed to the office to try and get a few things copied while the program downloaded. While there I had to deal with a stupid note from the high school SPED department. I was not in a good mood when the principal called to ask me to go to the counsellors office. He may have been on speaker phone when I said outloud, "I do not have time for this!" The secretary covered for me and tried to cheer me up because I had tears in my eyes. I arrived in the counselor's office to find the girl from 2nd hour with her mother and sister. I had no idea why I was there except that the mother looked like she wanted to kill me. The counselor explained that the mother wanted an apology for disrespecting my daughter just because she was Mexican. I explained what had happened in class and waited while it was translated. The girl spoke up and said she was talking about the day before when I had taken her pencil away. I explained that situation to the mom as well. (As in the girl had been asked to stop answering questions when we hadn't read the material for it yet. So I took her pencil and returned it when it was time for her to write.) Her mother apologized to me and told her daughter to apologize and stop disrespecting me. By this time I am in tears. Too much in one day. It turned into this big circus and finally after 25 minutes they let me go. I cancelled homeroom because I couldn't stop crying and didn't want to see students. Of course a student decided to come in after school for help and I didn't get to leave until 4:30. I just about quit my job. I was just done! Instead I came back Monday with a proactive behaviour plan (which so far is working) and a big smile on my face. The part that makes me laugh now is that this same girl ended up on the overnight field trip to Crystal Park, Montana. Most of her friends really like me and two of them were in the same cabin as her. This girl suggested to them that they should ask to have me as their chaperone in their cabin. She even asked me. She said it was because they all like me and knew that we would have fun together. We hung out together for two whole days and had a blast. I have learned my lesson. When a teenager is upset about something wait four days. It will change!

(It may have helped because I told her mom how invaluable I thought she was and what a leader for positive behaviour in the class she can be. :) )

Its Been Awhile...

School has begun. I still haven't come up for breath. My computer at work died so I am using a school laptop which for some reason won't allow me to access my blog. As I am either at work or home playing with my kids this blog has been neglected. The transition to full time work again has not been pretty and I wanted to spare you all the details. Landon is on the computer working on his homework once the kids go to sleep so I don't really have time or access to any computer to blog. :) I usually just go to bed. There are lots of things to report and hopefully I will get a chance soon. Tings such as Emily's first day at preschool. Enjoying the beautiful weather. Landon's birthday. Some good things happening at work. My overnight trip to Crystal Park in Montana with some other teachers and some 8th grade students. But as we are heading out the door to go to Utah to belatedly celebrate Landon's birthday I am just quickly saying Hi and giving a promise to come back soon. :)